Baker-Rylee Building and Town Square Service Station

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Baker-Rylee Building and Town Square Service Station in Hood County. Now, when you want to talk about a building that's earned its place on a Texas town square, you start with the stone itself, and this one's cut limestone, solid as a handshake, raised up in 1895. That was the year D.O.

Baker and J.D. Rylee decided Granbury needed a proper hardware operation, and they were just the men to provide it. You can almost hear the nails rattling in the bins and the creak of a new town finding its footing.

One year in, Baker's brother Jess came aboard and joined the partnership; because apparently one Baker wasn't quite enough for the hardware business. Then by 1898, the store had a new name to match its ambitions: the Baker Hardware Company. Three years, two name changes, one sturdy limestone building.

Granbury was growin', and this place was right there in the thick of it. Now here's where the story takes a turn. 1929 rolls around, the Transcontinental Oil Company purchases the building, and (well) they looked at those walls and decided two of them had no business being there anymore. Removed, just like that, to open the place up for automobile access and the sale of gasoline.

A hardware store becomes a service station. The building that once sold hammers and hinges now welcomed motorists rolling through on Granbury's square. Some buildings just know how to keep up with the times.

That cut limestone has stood through every chapter of it, and today it still reflects the early commercial growth of Granbury, a town that built things to last.

What the marker says

This cut limestone structure was built in 1895 to house the hardware operation of D.O. Baker and J.D. Rylee. The following year, Baker's brother Jess joined the partnership, and in 1898 the store became the Baker Hardware Company. When the Transcontinental Oil Company purchased the building in 1929, two walls were removed to provide automobile access for the sale of gasoline. A landmark on the square, the building reflects Granbury's early commercial growth.